It was a reference to McMahon's 2002 vote in the City Council, a vote that he and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have defended as necessary to close a huge city budget gap after 9/11.

McMahon said the signs were a distortion of his record this campaign season.

The signs were the brainchild of Grimm strategist Mario Bruno.

A GOP campaign veteran who ran for Assembly in 2004, Bruno said as he went door-to-door year after year, voters continued to talk about the hike.

"Even to this day they mention it," he said.

He said a homeowner chased him off his property one year because he associated the tax with Bloomberg and every other Republican. That was before Bloomberg left the GOP.

"That always stayed with me," Bruno said.

Bruno said he designed the sign himself using Microsoft Publisher and thought it would be an inexpensive way of getting a message out.

"Unlike a TV ad or a mailer, people can't help seeing them when they drive," he said. "And we're a borough of drivers."

While some have noted that the signs are yellow, like the "Don't Tread On Me" flag embraced by the Tea Party and others, Bruno said he chose the color based on his background as an engineer with the city Department of Transportation.

"We worked with signage all the time," he said. "In the campaign, we thought this really jumped out. And nobody else was using a yellow background for their signs."

Grimm backer Guy Molinari, a Bruno mentor said the signs proved so popular, the campaign had to re-order them twice."We ordered a small number, but they began to fly out," said Molinari, a former borough president and congressman.

"People called from all over. It was an interesting phenomenon."

McMahon said the signs were unfair.

"They made it look like I raised taxes this month," he said.

McMahon said that after the unpopular vote, the city cut rates two years in a row and gave homeowners a $400 rebate.He said that the Council resets the property-tax rates every June.

"The current rates have nothing to do with what happened in 2002," he said.